business

Born-in-Boulder Wild Oats brand to relaunch in Walmart stores

The born-in-Boulder Wild Oats brand will be relaunched this month in 2,000 Walmart stores — including some in Denver — as a discount alternative to national-brand organic groceries sold by the retailer.

This is part of Walmart's strategy to "remove the premium that is associated with organic products," spokeswoman Danit Marquardt said. "We don't think customers should have to pay high prices to put food on the family dinner table. Organic groceries are no exception."

Until the Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets grocery chain was bought by Whole Foods Market Inc., Wild Oats was the natural grocer's house brand. In March 2009, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Whole Foods to divest 32 stores and the Wild Oats brand to satisfy complaints that the $700 million acquisition of Wild Oats by its chief competitor violated federal antitrust laws.

The brand was purchased by Hidden Villa, an egg company that 18 months later sold it to Los Angeles-based The Yucaipa Co. Yucaipa also owns 167 Fresh & Easy grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, where Wild Oats products are sold.

Marquardt said the country's largest grocer did internal research that showed 91 percent of Walmart customers would purchase "affordable organic products in our stores.

"Organic is becoming popular with our customers," said Marquardt. "So we are using our scale to deliver quality organic groceries to our customers."

Marquardt said about 140 million customers shop at 4,000 Walmart stores weekly.

"We are creating a new price position for organic groceries that increases access," Walmart's executive vice president of grocery Jack Sinclair said in a conference call Wednesday morning.

Longmont-based retail analyst Jon Schallert said partnering with Wild Oats is a good strategy for meeting the demands of a consumer group they have not typically catered to. "It makes total sense," he said. "For Walmart to roll this out, they would need a reputable name behind it, and they would need one that has quality associated with it."

The big unknown is whether Walmart can deliver the consumer experience Wild Oats stores used to deliver, Schallert said.

"They are brilliant retail strategists, but when it comes to actually delivering on the customer promise, the sales results in their stores — whether same-store sales or future-store projections — aren't living up to the expectations of their stockholders," he said.

Wild Oats products also will be available later this summer on walmart.com and on Walmart to Go, an online-shopping service with home delivery that is currently being tested in Denver, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.

Yucaipa is owned by Ron Burkle, who purchased about 17 percent of Wild Oats Markets stock shortly before it was sold to Whole Foods.

Southern California newspapers have reported that Yucaipa may rebrand the Fresh & Easy stores, acquired from British retail giant Tesco last year, with the Wild Oats name.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story